SBU Winter Congress Mixed Pairs (Bronze)

I've played bridge three times this week, which must be a record. The SBU pairs on Tuesday with John, Team Rowan with Anna on Thursday and last night the SBU Winter Congress Bronze Pairs. Thinking ourselves to be among the better bronze players, we fancied we had a good shot at winning this. Anna was very interested in the first prize of two bottles of champagne.

It turned out not to be. Although we started well, a couple of bad decisions, a couple of mistakes, and some good play from our opponents denied us the good fortune you need to do really well in a pairs event. For example, once Anna chose to open 1NT; holding ♠KQJxx and we ended up in a non-making 3NT instead of a good 4♠; on another day our 3NT contract would be the winner. We finished 10th on 55.8%.

The event was played on Real Bridge, a new website where you can see everyone's face and hear them. It took a bit of getting used to, but actually I think I quite like it. It all worked smoothely, and certainly feels a lot more like actual bridge.

Anna played well as declarer, and her bold bidding got us a few rewards. We were all quite surprised on the first hand when she made a takeout double with 7 points (three Queens and a Jack) but it worked out well. On this one she is declarer in a tricky 1NT contract:

Danny South W N E S 1NT - - -

Anna opened the South hand 1NT. I thought for quite a while about bidding Stayman, then decided to pass. My Stayman bid would only really backfire if Anna had five Clubs, which is indeed the case, so I'm glad I passed (we would have ended up in an awful 2♦).

The prospects in 1NT are good, as you have six top tricks and either the ♠K or ♥Q could be the 7th. After a Diamond lead the defence took the first four tricks, then it was crunch time for West. The lead of either major will allow declarer the 7th trick. But he lead a Club. Anna unblocked the Clubs and lead a Heart up, but East took her ♥K and now the Hearts are blocked. For this reason it's probably better to lead a Spade up to the King, as if that is onside you do actually get a 7th trick. But from my seat in dummy I was also thinking "lead a Heart!", so we were both wrong.

There was no way for Anna to untangle her tricks so 1NT-1 was the result, for a 20% board. Most other tables got the same Diamond lead, but made 1NT. I suspect this is because after West took the fourth Diamond he switched to either Spades or Hearts (perhaps following a signal from partner). 1NT= would have scored 65%.